Pascal Lessard
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Cannot import iMovie 9 files into iMovie 10

Ok, so I installed Mavericks and iMovie 10. Everything looked great.

 

As I launch iMovie, I am informed that previous data needs to be imported into a new Library. I'm fine with that so I click OK. And then nothing happens. The software behaves as if it had finished importing, but not a single project from iMovie 9 gets imported.

 

I tried to import manually, and iMovie tells me that items such as "blah-blah/0000.data" are not recognized or cannot be imported and it only imports the completed film created for each project (the movies found in ProjectName.rcproject/Movies/") and nothing else. Not very useful since it makes them uneditable.

 

I tried trashing all the iMovie prefs I could find in the Preferences folder of my Library and the "UpdatedToiMovie10" files : it worked in getting iMovie 10 to behave as newly installed, but still no dice : nothing gets imported. As if my previous 41 projects didn't exist !

 

I was using iMovie 9.0.9 until yesterday.

 

Any ideas ?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), (15 inches late 2008)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 7:22 AM

by Pascal Lessard,Solvedanswer
Pascal Lessard Pascal Lessard
Level 1 (0 points)
A:

I've succeeded in importing my iMovie 9.0.9 files into iMovie 10.0 using ideas found in this thread :

  • On my external drives, I moved all my iMovie 9.0.9-related folders (iMovie Projects, iMovie Original Movies, iMovie Events) to the root level of each external drives (I had generally moved them to an iLife/iMovie/ folder to reduce clutter)
  • I searched for (and removed) the file "UpdatedToiMovie10" everywhere (in all the iMovie Projects, iMovie Original Movies and iMovie Events folders of every disk)
  • I trashed all iMovie 10.0-style iMovie Library and iMovie Theater files
  • I searched for all iMovie prefs I could find in my ~/Library folder and moved those to the trash
  • Launched iMovie 10.0 again, and it behaved as if it had never been lauched before, offering me to import all my previous projects
  • Clicked ok and waited... waited... waited. Importing was relatively quick, but recreating the movies in the Theater file was very long.

 

In the end I finally got all my projects imported in an iMovie Library file, one for each drive where each projects had been saved before, while all the completed movies where consolidated in a single ginourmous iMovie Theater file in my ~/User folder (drats).

Posted on Nov 3, 2013 8:32 AM

Close
Pascal Lessard

Q: Cannot import iMovie 9 files into iMovie 10

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2

  • by Tactos,

    Tactos Tactos Oct 27, 2013 1:59 PM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 1:59 PM in response to Pascal Lessard

    same problem here.

    to resolve  go to

    in the folders of imovie 9 (eventes of imovie, imovie projects, etc)

    there is a file with the name "UpdatedToiMovie10", delete that file and go to

    Imovie -> file-> upadte projets and events.

    P.S- It take some time you have to wait, DON´T STOP THE IMOVIE.

  • by Mike '77,

    Mike '77 Mike '77 Oct 27, 2013 2:36 PM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 2:36 PM in response to Pascal Lessard

    Now that I have all of my projects and events transferred to iMovie 10, I find that it has randomly sorted them and is a mess.

     

    Rather than try and re-sort, I have decided to delete everything imported and run everything up to this point loaded into iMovie 9.  All new projects and events I create I will use iMovie 10.

     

    This also solves a huge problem I had with iMovie 9 running slow due to 0.5 TB data it manages.  It will now be capped and I can start over with iMovie 10.

     

    Anyone else have any luck sorting, etc. and does anyone really like what they did with the new version?

  • by mike80111,

    mike80111 mike80111 Oct 29, 2013 5:40 PM in response to Mike '77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 5:40 PM in response to Mike '77

    I have a similar problem, but it seems to crash when it tries to process a project that I moved to trash and does not appear in the iMovie9 project library.  Any thoughts?  Thanks,

  • by Pascal Lessard,Solvedanswer

    Pascal Lessard Pascal Lessard Nov 3, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 3, 2013 8:32 AM in response to Pascal Lessard

    I've succeeded in importing my iMovie 9.0.9 files into iMovie 10.0 using ideas found in this thread :

    • On my external drives, I moved all my iMovie 9.0.9-related folders (iMovie Projects, iMovie Original Movies, iMovie Events) to the root level of each external drives (I had generally moved them to an iLife/iMovie/ folder to reduce clutter)
    • I searched for (and removed) the file "UpdatedToiMovie10" everywhere (in all the iMovie Projects, iMovie Original Movies and iMovie Events folders of every disk)
    • I trashed all iMovie 10.0-style iMovie Library and iMovie Theater files
    • I searched for all iMovie prefs I could find in my ~/Library folder and moved those to the trash
    • Launched iMovie 10.0 again, and it behaved as if it had never been lauched before, offering me to import all my previous projects
    • Clicked ok and waited... waited... waited. Importing was relatively quick, but recreating the movies in the Theater file was very long.

     

    In the end I finally got all my projects imported in an iMovie Library file, one for each drive where each projects had been saved before, while all the completed movies where consolidated in a single ginourmous iMovie Theater file in my ~/User folder (drats).

  • by flying4ups,

    flying4ups flying4ups Nov 3, 2013 8:49 AM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 3, 2013 8:49 AM in response to Pascal Lessard

    I had the same issue with my project not opening in iMovie 10 above and this worked for me.  I was still able to open the file in iMovie 9 by using the "open with" option from the Finder menu. This works as a good work around until a good fix is found.

  • by rynohare,

    rynohare rynohare Nov 26, 2013 8:33 AM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2013 8:33 AM in response to Pascal Lessard

    i have a related problem!

    i went to delete the "imovieupdate" folder etc etc and relaunch the version10.0  so as i could update project/events to make them compatible in the new version however in the process i accidently deleted my "imovie events" (dont ask!) so now im just left with the "imovie project" i was working on from version 9. this updated fine in version 10 however now i have no events and the preview window reads "source clip missing"

    how do i recover my events as i still have them on my hard drive, reimporting DID NOT WORK

  • by Tactos,

    Tactos Tactos Nov 26, 2013 3:17 PM in response to rynohare
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 26, 2013 3:17 PM in response to rynohare

    I'll talk about basic things but I have to ask the questions as you erased the folder instead of files.

     

     

    1º - see if it is already in the recycling?

     

    2º- have active time machine? can restore from there if you have.

     

     

    without any of these two options, I think there is nothing to do ....

     

     

    I used google translator

  • by pauldarrigo,

    pauldarrigo pauldarrigo Apr 28, 2014 11:06 AM in response to Michael59
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 28, 2014 11:06 AM in response to Michael59

    Hi,  they took down that article on the apple site.  Do you have  acopy of it?

  • by LimaLoco,

    LimaLoco LimaLoco Dec 27, 2014 7:20 AM in response to Mike '77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 7:20 AM in response to Mike '77

    My iMac hard drive died after (during?) installing Yosemite, so with a new hard drive and new Yosemite install, iMovie 10.0.6, when it found my events and projects, had them grayed out and inaccessible too. I followed Mike '77's above instructions and restarted iMovie, then updated projects and events, and it found everything and made it all available -- whoopie! But why does it take experimenters like us to provide this info? Doesn't this sort of thing happen to ANYONE who works at Apple???

  • by cruisingjack,

    cruisingjack cruisingjack Mar 10, 2016 12:16 PM in response to Pascal Lessard
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2016 12:16 PM in response to Pascal Lessard

    Ever since I upgraded to El Capitan, I have not been able to complete a very large project that had almost 100 photos and pdf files in addition to many 50 + year old home movies.  I am talking about a project that I have been working on for over a year. Every photo and pdf file was black when playing the movie back in iMovie 9 or even when exporting it to MV4 format.   I even wrote a letter to an Apple senior executive asking for an engineering fix. 

     

    Thank you, thank you for the instructions on how to reinitiate iMovie 10 so that I could import all my iMovie 9 projects and media.  I can now finish my project, even though I prefer working in the iMovie 9 environment since it is just easier to use especially with the key stroke shortcuts. iMovie 10 is similar to Apple's Final Cut Express that I had attempted to use several years ago but gave up since iMovie 9 is so much easier to use.

     

    I'll try to continue to use iMovie 9 when I am not using still photos.

Previous Page 2